Great, but what EXACTLY are you doing? I'm guessing you're clicking on the search link at the middle top of the page, then putting something in some fields, maybe changing one of the options, then hitting the return key or clicking "Search"

I'm getting results for all of the author searches I try with valid usernames. So... either you're doing something different than I am, or it's reacting differently for you for some reason.

Please give me exact steps for one case where you do get results and one case where you don't but think you should.

Fishy works.
I was leaving out the THE.
Tisha now works.
Emily worked yesterday, it was tisha2 not working.
It is not case sensitivity.
Seems to be randomness.

I'm using firefox.
I can't get it to fail now.
I can assure you I can spell tisha2.
I have been having server problems somewhere which seemed to affect eplaya almost exclusively.
But not the main b man sight.
But I had no problems yesterday.